As his daughter was growing into young adulthood, this father found his own way to tell her she deserves the love and respect of a good man.
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Inspiration
My inspiration for writing the song and making the video [posted near the bottom of this post] was simply that I missed my daughter, Cara. We were—and are—very close. I am fortunate that I didn’t miss her childhood; we were “thick as thieves.”
Starting around the age of 12, I no longer received a call or text every day from Cara. She wanted to hang out with her girlfriends more and go to the mall with them and do the things that preteen girls like to do together. I found myself feeling depressed. Everyone that I would tell about my situation seemed to shrug their shoulders and say things like, “It’s just a phase, she’ll come back to you when she’s a teenager and she wants to learn to drive a car.” I quote a portion of this in the song.
Just let me say that I feel bad and don’t try to console me. Don’t try to say something you think will make me feel better.
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My wife tried to console me when I tried to describe what I was feeling. What I finally had to tell her was, “Just let me say that I feel bad and don’t try to console me. Don’t try to say something you think will make me feel better.” It was a situation similar to what I had heard a nurse describe. She said that when she was a young nurse and someone lost a parent, she would immediately try to console them and tell them that their parent “was in a better place.” After her own mother died, the nurse realized that people need time to just “let it hurt” for a while.
After I had let the state of our new father-daughter relationship “hurt” for a while, I wrote the Baby Girl song. The song is based on my real-life thoughts and feelings related.
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Song Lyrics – My Baby Girl
She was my sunshine and my moonlight
My reason for fun, all seasons in one
We’d share a whole day together
A walk in the park, she dressed in pink feathers
Chorus
I’m missing my baby girl
It’s changing my whole wild world
It will never be the same again
I’m missing my little friend
We’d laugh and play almost everyday
I’d share some pizza pie with the apple of my eye
I know that everything must change
But that won’t relieve the pain
Chorus
I’m missing my baby girl
It’s changing my whole wild world
It will never be the same again
I’m missing my little friend
All the people say, that it’s just a phase
She’ll come back to you when she’s teenaged
It’s supposed to make me feel much better
A man ain’t supposed to cry but my eyes get much wetter
Chorus
I’m missing my baby girl
It’s changing my whole wild world
It will never be the same again
I’m missing my little friend
Bridge
From little toys to little boys
How did we get here so fast
From baby dolls to the latest styles
And I’m no longer her favorite man
So wherever you go and whatever you do
You deserve to be loved like your daddy loves you
◊♦◊
The Video
Frankly, I was thinking that I would I have to hire an actor to play the father in the video because I thought that seeing an actress that looked so much like my daughter would be a little too hard to bear. But fortunately, Cara was with me during the entire shoot, she assisted by operating a camera, running errands and making little Eva [the actor playing young Cara] feel comfortable – like we were all just going to have a fun day in the park. It turned out to be a great bonding experience for Cara and me.
As she grows up and goes out into the world and meets young men who want to date her, she deserves to be treated with respect, love, and consideration.
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The most touching moment in the video for me is probably much different than it is for people who watch it. There is a scene where Cara is posing with an American Girl doll that I bought her when she was 10. The tough part was that I knew it was the last doll that I would ever buy her when I bought it for her . . . and it was. She stopped playing with dolls later that year.
At the end of the video, I sing the line, “So wherever you go and whatever you do…you deserved to be loved like your daddy loves you”. The line is meant to let Cara know how much I love her and that as she grows up and goes out into the world and meets young men who want to date her, she deserves to be treated with respect, love, and consideration.
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Photo courtesy of the author.